On July 23, 1954, the People's Daily published an editorial solemnly declaring: "The people of the Chinese must liberate Taiwan." ”
Since then, the liberation of Taiwan and the reunification of the motherland have become the most important things for the CPC Central Committee.
1996 was a crucial year for the Chinese mainland and Taiwan, and yan Cairen, a demobilized soldier, said that all the personnel of the army at that time had made all preparations, and even the suicide notes of more than 500 brothers had been written.
What really happened this year? Why did the mainland and Taiwan get into such trouble? What is the relationship between the United States and the Middle? What was the end result?
The United States that obstructed it
The issue of liberating Taiwan has been the most important issue for the CPC Central Committee since the founding of New China, and the liberation of Taiwan is something that the party leadership has spent many years painstakingly doing.
However, the road to the liberation of Taiwan was not smooth and could even be described as bumpy.
The biggest obstacle to this is the United States.
In the 1950s, the question of the islands off China's southeast coast once became the focus of military and political struggles between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait.
In addition, these places are also a major issue in Sino-US relations and US-Taiwan relations.
These islands are known as "outer islands" in Taiwan.
The liberation of these islands is the only step for the CPC Central Committee to attack and finally liberate Taiwan.
To this end, from the second half of 1949, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China began to launch attacks on coastal islands, until the first half of 1950, the Chinese People's Liberation Army successively liberated Hainan Island, Zhejiang Zhoushan Island and other islands.
In the end, the remaining coastal islands such as Kinmen and Matsu in Fujian are still in the hands of Chiang Kai-shek.
The Korean War broke out as the Chinese government actively organized its forces to launch a massive offensive on the remaining islands in the second half of 1950 and 1951.
And then it also gave the United States an opportunity to take advantage of the issue of China's jurisdiction over the Taiwan region.
Korean War
In June 1950, the Korean War officially broke out, but the Truman administration issued a statement on the Situation in Korea on June 27, at the beginning of the Korean War.
The ordinance is full of interference in the Chinese government's recovery of Taiwan:
"I have ordered the Seventh Fleet to prevent any attack on Formosa, and as a proper result of this action, I have demanded that the Chinese government in Formosa cease all air and sea operations against the mainland."
This is also the so-called "Taiwan neutralization" policy.
Because the US Seventh Fleet has invaded the Taiwan Strait, it has actually played a role in "protecting" Taiwan and preventing the liberation of Taiwan by the Chinese People's Liberation Army.
The American flag
The U.S. move has brought about major changes in the military situation and national security environment facing the Chinese government.
In order to actively strengthen national defense forces and organize the Chinese Volunteer Army to prepare for entering the KOREAN War, the CPC Central Committee made a decision-making plan to postpone the release of Taiwan and suspend the attack on Kinmen and other coastal islands.
Such a decision gave Chiang Kai-shek a life-saving straw.
In order to curb the development of new China and the communist forces in Asia, the United States built a circular defense line in the western Pacific, including the Taiwan region, against the Soviet Union, China and other socialist countries.
In order to step up military and economic assistance to Taiwan and obstruct the Chinese government's liberation of Taiwan, the United States can be said to have exhausted its methods.
Chiang Kai-shek
It is precisely under such circumstances that the Chinese Government, the US Government, and the Taiwan authorities have each put forward and formed their own "policies" on the "outer islands."
Chiang Kai-shek has always regarded adhering to the "outer islands" as his trump card, which not only boosted the morale and people's hearts in the Taiwan region, but also gave propaganda to overseas Chinese and ethnic Chinese, and also served as a window for psychological warfare against Chinese mainland.
In terms of relations with the United States, Chiang Kai-shek tried to urge the United States to provide more military assistance to the Taiwan region by sticking to the "outer islands," and waited for the opportunity to take advantage of the dangerous situation of the "outer islands" to drag the United States into a war between Taiwan and the mainland, so as to achieve his own goals.
The United States does not view the Taiwan issue in this way.
Chiang Kai-shek
For the United States, the Taiwan issue is China's problem, and if the United States wants to break through its own world in the Asia-Pacific region, it naturally wants to grasp the soft underbelly of the Chinese government.
The unlived Taiwan, together with the Chiang Kai-shek administration's "mischief," is the best chance for the United States to succeed.
On the one hand, it feels that it is not worth it, and because of Chiang Kai-shek's relations, it is very likely to affect its own large territory in the Asia-Pacific region.
On the other hand, the United States is also worried that if the "outer islands" are really taken back by the Chinese government, it will pose a huge threat to the Taiwan region, and naturally, the authority and influence of the United States itself in Asia will also be seriously damaged.
Eisenhower
Until later, after Eisenhower came to power, the United States continued to pursue a policy of hostility, isolation, and containment of China in response to Taiwan's development, and even adopted a tougher stance than the Truman administration.
On November 6, 1953, the U.S. National Security Council formulated U.S. Policy Toward the Chinese Communist Party.
The document clearly states that the main problem of U.S. Policy in the Far East is to deal with the changes in the power structure caused by the presence of a strong, hostile Communist China and the alliance of Communist China and the Soviet Union.
The purpose of the United States is simple: to make China a country that is not hostile to the United States.
It would be better if it could be replaced.
America's ambitions have never stopped.
People's Daily
On July 23, 1954, the People's Daily published an editorial solemnly declaring that "the people of the Chinese must liberate Taiwan."
It was also decided that in August of the same year, it would launch a campaign to attack the islands off the coast of Zhejiang, and prepare to capture the Island of Great Exhibition and other islands, in order to severely punish Chiang Kai-shek's army and demonstrate the determination and strength of the CPC Central Committee to liberate Taiwan.
This is the first Taiwan Strait crisis.
On September 3, 1954, the Fujian front troops of the People's Liberation Army officially launched a large-scale shelling of the Battle of Kinmen, firing more than 5,000 consecutive rounds of artillery on the same day, and Chiang Kai-shek's army returned with artillery fire.
The PLA shelling of Kinmen lasted from September 3 to September 22, and in addition to fighting with artillery, Chiang Kai-shek also sent planes from Taiwan to attack Xiamen in turn, and the military confrontation in the Taiwan Strait suddenly heated up, causing widespread concern in the international community.
Especially the United States.
The United States believes that if it participates in them, it will give the Chinese Communists the opportunity to attack the United States, but if these islands are not clearly defined, the Taiwan region will not be able to account for it.
The United States held two consecutive meetings on this issue and did not make a decision.
But U.S. cooperation with Chiang Kai-shek has not stopped.
The Chinese government is also the source of the conflict between the Taiwan issue and the US government.
It was not until Nixon visited China in 1972 and on January 1, 1979, when China and the United States formally established diplomatic relations, that Sino-US relations eased up a lot again.
Nixon (center) visits China
The United States even abrogated the so-called U.S.-Chiang Kai-shek Mutual Defense Treaty in order to gain China's trust.
However, superficial friendship does not mean that it is actually good.
If it is not worried that China will pose a threat to itself, how can the United States abstain from the treaty in order to gain China's trust?
After the collapse of the Soviet Union, China was seen by the United States as a future superpower, and this idea has been looming since the founding of New China.
With the collapse of the Soviet Union and the rapid development of China, the United States knew that China was a country to be reckoned with, so it began to fight the idea of China again.
Chiang Kai-shek
Although there was a crisis in the Taiwan Strait in the 1950s, the Taiwan issue has always been a heart problem of the Chinese government.
Chiang Kai-shek, who is in the Taiwan region, is again isolated and helpless, and the United States is the biggest reliance on this.
The issue of Taiwan was once again put on the table, and for a time the issue of the Taiwan region once again became the object of discussion.
The United States thinks very simply, how to contain the development of China, a future big country, must be the Taiwan issue.
Spoiling the situation became the main act of the United States.
The liberation of Taiwan is the goal of the Party Central Committee
Because of the outbreak of the Taiwan Strait crisis and the obstruction of the United States, the liberation of Taiwan has become a problem that remains to this day.
The Chinese government's attention to the Taiwan issue far exceeds all else.
In 1995, however, the leader of the Taiwan region blatantly made an unbelievable decision, bringing Sino-US relations to the brink of freezing again.
On May 22, 1995, the leader of the Taiwan region visited the United States!
And it is specially approved by the US authorities!
China and the United States have always had disputes over the Taiwan issue, and since the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and the United States, relations have eased somewhat, and everything has become on the right track.
However, the U.S. move in 1995 pushed Sino-US relations to a freezing point.
Even shortly after the leader of the Taiwan region visited the United States, he said that this was an invitation from the United States to treat a country, and such remarks by the leader of the Taiwan region immediately set off a wave in the land of China.
The CPC Central Committee also attaches great importance to this and understands very well what this US move means.
The CPC Central Committee began to sue the US Government for its actions, which is why the two sides once again launched a "war" on the Taiwan issue.
The Chinese government immediately issued a warning to the United States, and the US secretary of state also expressed his position to China that inviting the leader of the Taiwan region is only a private occasion, not as the outside world says.
Such a rebellious act by the United States has not only harmed Sino-US relations, but also harmed China's interests.
The Chinese government began to increase patrols around the Taiwan Strait.
On August 15, 1995, the Nanjing Military Region of the Chinese People's Liberation Army began a large-scale military exercise at sea, with dozens of ships and hundreds of aircraft.
On October 31, 1995, the Chinese People's Liberation Army conducted another exercise on Dongshan Island.
In the face of the long-standing Taiwan issue, the Chinese Government has absolute confidence that China's territory should not be left to outsiders to take advantage of.
The demobilized soldier Yan Cairen was very impressed by this.
Yan Cairen
By the time of the Taiwan Strait crisis in 1996, Yan Cairen was already a colonel in the Kuomintang army and was in charge of the command of the Dongsha garrison.
Although Yan Cairen is also a veteran, whenever he recalls the Taiwan Strait crisis in 1996, he still feels afraid, and Yan Cairen even describes the situation at that time: It was the most dangerous and helpless time I have encountered since I became a soldier.
In just a few days, the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) conducted several rounds of missile fire in the area around the Taiwan Strait, and the deafening sound of artillery fire, terrifying fire, and billowing smoke made the entire island of Taiwan vibrate.
The U.S. military also sent two aircraft carrier battle groups to the waters around the Taiwan Strait. Tensions everywhere have made the situation very volatile.
It even said that the commander at the time issued an order: "The island is in the people, the island is dead." ”
Yan Cairen's more than five hundred brothers even wrote a will and were ready to die at any time.
But in the end, the big war did not start, why?
Because of the emergence of Liu Liankun, a traitor in the CPC Central Committee, and because of the betrayal of central information to the Kuomintang, every step of the central government's actions was difficult.
It was only when the leader of the Taiwan region later said that the bullets fired by the mainland were only empty packages that the central authorities learned that there was an internal ghost.
The purpose of the central authorities is to liberate Taiwan and reclaim Taiwan, and for the people of Taiwan, there is no intention of harming them, so the central authorities changed their tactics halfway and fired empty bombs at Taiwan.
Liu Liankun
Liu Liankun also promptly informed the Kuomintang of such information, which led to the later picketing of the central authorities.
Again, however, the timing was missed.
Yan Cairen also said that if there is a real fight, it is difficult to garrison, Dongsha Island is not only small in size and there is no shelter on the island, but also far from the supply line of Taiwan Island, if it is attacked by air, the entire island will fall into a sea of fire.
Yan Cairen and more than five hundred Dongsha brothers, who had long expected this, were all loaded, whether weapons or machine guns, in order to buy time, in case of real war, it was too late to load.
Sixteen years later, Yan Cairen said that cross-strait relations have a bearing on the survival and development of the Taiwan region, and what the leader of the Taiwan region should do is to find a way to find a mechanism and consensus for dialogue with the mainland.
Taiwan
The CPC Central Committee has always put the liberation of Taiwan in the first place in national development.
But there are always people who provoke China's bottom line.
On August 1, 2022, U.S. House speaker Pelosi is expected to visit the Taiwan region, and the behavior of the US authorities is tantamount to touching China's bottom line again and seriously violating China's sovereignty and territorial integrity.
On August 2, 2022, China responded that with regard to the Taiwan issue, China will take firm and effective measures to safeguard national sovereignty and territorial integrity, and told the United States that the United States will be responsible for all serious consequences caused by this.
For Taiwan, this is China's own family affair. For the liberation of Taiwan, this is something that the CPC Central Committee has been insisting on.
The reunification of the motherland is also bound to be the trend of the times.